Retail in the Middle East is a lucrative business because visiting shopping malls is integral to the social landscape of the region today. It’s also highly competitive. Families visit malls for recreation, socialising …and shopping, the reigning parad igm being ‘retailtainment’, with parents browsing stores and socialising while their children spend time in the ‘edutainment’ components that malls routinely offer today.

But any retailer worth his salt will tell you ‘retail is detail’, which means it’s all about concentrating on the details if retail is to be profitable. That’s been a key learning in our journey in retail, which began 25 years ago in 1990 with a single menswear store in Saudi Arabia.

Given the steady influx of best-in-class brands in world-class malls, which is driving discretionary spending, retail is, indeed, a strong economic performer and lucrative business proposition.